Shoulder harnesses for handguns have been around for many years. These have customarily been worn by persons who wished to conceal the presence of the weapon. The approach generally used has been to provide a shoulder harness with the pistol holster positioned beneath the armpit of the wearer. Examples of harnesses of this type are disclosed in U.S. patents U.S. Pat. No. 834,416, granted Oct. 30, 1906, to B. F. Stewart for "REVOLVER--BELT AND SUSPENDERS" and U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,715, granted Mar. 19, 1974, to S. R. Scialdone for "NOVEL HOLSTER AND HARNESS".
The armpit holster harness is simply not practical for the high-powered handguns used by hunters stalking game. These guns are too large and too heavy to be carried comfortably beneath the armpit.
Harnesses have, of course, been devised for carrying bulky and heavy objects. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,146,570, granted Feb. 7, 1939, for "BODY CARRIER FOR BATTERY HEARING AID" discloses a shoulder and chest harness for supporting the several components of an early model, bulky hearing aid. And, the more recent patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,758, granted Feb. 12, 1991, to C. S. Eaneff for "SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR PORTABLE VIDEO CAMERA" discloses a harness arrangement for supporting the weight of a heavy camera on both shoulders of a person. Neither of these harnesses particularly lend themselves to carrying a high-powered handgun.